It all began when my mother pushed an advertisement 'Models Wanted' in front of me and said that if I didn't get a job soon' there would be trouble. Mother had the idea that after disgracing the family by dropping out of Teachers College I should do something respectable like office work, etc. instead of bumming around in hospital kitchens and dishwashing in restaurants. After a lot of pushing from Mother, who had always hoped that someday I would do something glamorous and fulfil her dreams. I decided to take the plunge. After all it could be a laugh, even glamorous, and plenty of men had said that I was alright to look at.

So off I went to enrol myself at a modelling school for charm, elegance, deportment, poise, posture, makeup, hairdos, fingerpaint, eyelashes, dollybird techniques and modelling. Of course there was the small investment of $50, which Mother paid eagerly, thinking how nice it would be to see her daughter in Women's Weekly, and how it would impress all the relatives and show them that I was not a hopeless dropout after all.

By now I was quite eager and looking forward to hitting the Big Time and money. After about two weeks of applying makeup and learning how to catwalk (rolling down the stage like a dummy on wheels) and how to smile - sexy smile, cheeky smile outrageous smile etc. in preparation for whatever mood the advertising agent plus the photographer thought would sell his product - one received a diploma and some nice photographs of oneself doing all these things and the promise of success.

I had now entered the Golden Gates of Dolly Bird Land. You even had to practise being filmed in case you ever managed to gel television advertisements, and they had some man there to give us a "screen test". This of course impressed us all so much that we laid on our best performances for him Afterwards I found out that the guy had no film in his camera and they never do for such "screen tests".